|
blue squares posted:I agreed. He agreed.
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2013 21:26
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 02:43 |
|
|
Well think to yourself, "Why am I writing these words?" Is it because that's how you heard somebody else say it? In normal everyday speech, this is what we do most often: put phrases together and use idioms. You want to try to avoid that as much as possible. Learning to recognize it is just a matter of reading your story and thinking "why did I write things that way?" Don't write things just because that's how you've seen other writers do it or because that's how you've heard it. Make something new and weird. That said, write your stories with cliches. I do. Just get that feeling out and the story done. Let your brain take a shortcut while you focus on getting the story out. Going back and punching up the dialogue is easy, and best saved for a later edit. Some people would probably disagree with me.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 18, 2013 15:02
|
|
|
Sometimes I write things that just plain don't work in TD. I've written stories with all dialog and ones with no dialog. Some of the stories I like the most others hate. Worst case scenario is that you lose. And who cares. Hillock just lost and he's a good writer. What he tried didn't work but nobody hates him for it.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 24, 2013 17:26
|
|
|
Stuporstar posted:ou all just want to cruise along doing whatever? Fi generally, yes.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 25, 2013 22:27
|
|
|
ravenkult posted:I wanna try TD but I'm decidedly a genre writer. Will I be stomped? sure come on by and just do whatever you want. That's how we roll in TD. Feels good.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 25, 2013 22:38
|
|
|
The only thing that really matters in TD is becoming a better writer. You do that by putting in a story, and if it's poo poo people tell you it's poo poo. If it's good people get jealous and tell you it's poo poo. At the end, if you stick with it, you get better. I've seen several people get way better, and even I've gotten marginally better. It really helps to just produce something every week and put it out there and have people give you feedback. For free! But yes, it's totally a trap. We like to lure in new people so we can laugh at their awful writing. And then watch them get better and secretly curse their names when they beat us.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 25, 2013 22:43
|
|
|
Stuporstar is like the dad who "goes out for cigarettes" when you're 7 and then shows up on your front porch when you're 19 to complain that you don't go to church anymore.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 25, 2013 22:53
|
|
|
for non-genre "war is hell" I'm gonna have to go with one of the best books ever written: Catch-22. It also helps that it is an amazingly fun read.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2013 20:50
|
|
|
why not just describe them pretty much how you just did? although, i'm partial to the "high-five of negativity"
|
|
#
¿
Dec 19, 2013 20:04
|
|
|
organburner posted:Okay, here's a small sample of some exposition. The problem here with your exposition is that it's pretty boring and pointless. You're not directing a movie, you're telling me a story. Don't tell me the layout of the buildings unless it's really important. Give me the RELEVANT details. Are there windows that need to be boarded? Good look out towers? Always be asking yourself: "Why does the reader care?" If your answer is "to set the mood." then BZZZZT, try again. Backstory should be only so I can understand stuff about the characters.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2013 23:11
|
|
|
Cussing is A-Ok, but it needs to be more than just a base response. Usually things you're telling the reader by saying "drat" can be better expressed through the characters' actions.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2013 01:55
|
|
|
Congrats, blue squares!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2013 01:45
|
|
|
I just include a different emoticon for every bit of dialogue; it's a great way to tell a story!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2014 23:53
|
|
|
"God is dead." -Nietzsche "Time is dead" -Faulkner "Philosophy is dead." -Stephen Hawking "Print is dead." -Egon Spengler from ghostbusters "Facebook is dead." -Some idiot journalist "Hip hop is dead." -NAS "Ding dong the witch is dead." -Dorothy "Paul is dead." -John Lennon
|
|
#
¿
Jan 3, 2014 00:13
|
|
|
LaughMyselfTo posted:Okay, really weird thing to post about, but... pretty much, because not only can you never send your stuff off for publication, but any editing you'd do would gently caress it up, and you're going to be more concerned with how it looks than how it reads. You're literally sacrificing parts of your story for something that doesn't matter. STOP DOING THAT.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 3, 2014 00:54
|
|
|
magnificent7 posted:What is Marquez and no I need to sleep. Here. This is Marquez. A nice, short story filled with wonderful. http://salvoblue.homestead.com/wings.html
|
|
#
¿
Jan 3, 2014 10:30
|
|
|
I'm with ChairChucker, but a little lighter on the "never." I do cuss sometimes, but only when I feel like it really adds to the character.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2014 01:40
|
|
|
I cuss like a sailor IRL, but it always sticks out to me in writing unless it's purposeful. Just like every other thing you write, you should put it in there because that's the only thing that actually conveys the feeling, not just because you don't know what else to stick in there. I hate when characters just say "gently caress." and nothing else, because it's not really useful. I consider it a special form of "telling." Might as well just say "I am angry!"
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2014 05:19
|
|
|
Christmas Jones posted:
critted this for you.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 26, 2014 04:46
|
|
|
I kinda feel like you're taking the approach of a high schooler saying "Well, I can earn more money NOW if I skip college and just start my own business" rather than going to business school. You're working on your book, but asking questions about how to use its and it's, and myriad other basic writing things. I feel like if you put the book on hiatus for a bit and work on shoring up your writing abilities, when you go back to the book you can worry about plot and characters and not be worried about all the minutia of writing. But also I'm in like my 9th year of college with no end in sight so maybe I should shut up. I'll earn money one of these days 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2014 21:50
|
|
|
Jagermonster posted:That business school analogy is horrible. My analogies in this thread are a pile of cat poo poo. They are terrible but they also contain parasites.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 30, 2014 04:21
|
|
|
Shageletic posted:Please be gentle. Why? Would you rather be a good writer or a delusional bad one?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 1, 2014 13:23
|
|
|
i hope what does and does not constitute a writer takes up three pages of internet arguing. hey, at least we're getting words down 
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2014 19:35
|
|
|
congrats! That is super good news. I am jealous, and still hoping to publish literally anything. So many rejections
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2014 18:16
|
|
|
CB_Tube_Knight posted:features the apostrophe as the twenty-seventh letter of it's alphabet. loving this
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2014 03:12
|
|
|
break up "he ran, he jumped" with stuff in between. thoughts, scenery, dialogue. John jumped. "Whoa, a spider just crawled out of my rear end." the spider looked like the bastard child of a kiwi and an old commodore 64. his heart beat quickened, and he ran.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2014 18:28
|
|
|
all the best writing is about communism that's why I only write about communism but also sometimes socialism when I'm feeling a little off.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2014 00:33
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:You are everything that is wrong with everything, commie. ok, MOM
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2014 04:37
|
|
|
Character could walk through the forest without ducking; each tree's lower branches had been cleeved off by an unknown woodsmen, each left with several sap-oozing holes.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2014 14:41
|
|
|
organburner posted:As much as it shames me I have to admit, I do not face criticism well. I feel like I should address this since I gave you your crit. I was the same way. That's why even though I've wanted to be a writer since I was little, I only got started at 30. The thing is, that's just something you have to push yourself to get over. The main way you do that is by getting a lot of criticism and forcing yourself to move past it. I was so loving nervous the few times I entered Thunderdome and put my stories out there, knowing that there would be harsh criticism afterwards. And you know what? It really sucked to have people tell me my writing was dog poo poo. But I didn't want to write dog poo poo, so I learned and now I write something that's more like that dog pee? I am bad at analogies. And criticism is just a thing that happens now. I don't even care anymore. Make yourself get over it.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 01:48
|
|
|
So you're saying you don't work? Who the hell buys your food and pays your rent?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 04:12
|
|
|
The Saddest Rhino posted:andard operating procedu that's what you get for having a real job, sucka.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 04:23
|
|
|
I'm pretty much only using this emoticon from now on, so you'll just have to infer my meaning when I post.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 17:12
|
|
|
mostly this one tho 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 17:22
|
|
|
CB_Tube_Knight posted:I am thinking I might sit here and try and come up with alternate interpretations for the Four Horsemen because the Bible isn't as concrete on most of their names as we're led to believe. I don't know where people got this whole thing with Pestilence from, but that's not even close to what the text says. congratulations!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2014 04:38
|
|
|
I dunno, in my opinion this is a situtation where telling is better than showing. It's so hard to understand what the hell you're trying to say with lopsided squints... "Two suns were in the sky; one looked lower and smaller than the other, but was actually just further away." Is the whole two suns, one smaller, one lower, thing even important in your story? or is it just a "oh man we sure on an alien world!"
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2014 16:55
|
|
|
I wouldn't talk about the sun period, because I have a modicum of self-respect  I know it's short as hell, but it says everything that I feel it needs to. fixed for blue squares: "Two suns the sky; one lower and smaller than the other, but further away." crabrock fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Mar 22, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2014 17:11
|
|
|
It is readable. You have some issues with grammar (a lot of missing commas) that lead to ambiguous (albeit hilarious) statements like "As I entered Dad." I read about half and got bored, mostly because I didn't know what was the main motivation was. She was going to go get some chip implanted in her brain for whatever reason, and she was scared. I don't know why she needed the chip or what it would do, so I didn't know what her limitations were. You at least need to tease me with the knowledge if you're going to draw it out, because your character already knows, and I should know too if I'm going to understand her. You have a bit few too many adjectives for my taste. But I've seen worse written by "not dyslexic" people.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2014 22:54
|
|
|
he posts a billion of them. they all have to do with having sex with your dad. he probably makes millions on amazon
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 02:43 |
|
|
thanks for the video. i can both identify good stories where i've basically done that, and lovely stories where i'm like "whoops, that's what's missing."
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2014 00:42
|
|